


Don't Lets Start

by johnnysuhs (johnnylisp)



Category: NCT (Band), Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Genre: Eventual Smut, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, all nct members - Freeform, ready player one au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 02:20:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14250966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnnylisp/pseuds/johnnysuhs
Summary: Johnny admits his life his great, but the OASIS is better, and he may have spent all the money his parents gave him to upgrade his armor only to lose the challenge.However, he does meet NCT, and he might have a virtual crush on the leader (who looks like a white haired Noctis.)Does a white haired Noctis extist in real life? Johnny didn't think so at first.





	Don't Lets Start

**Author's Note:**

> title from Don't Lets Start by They Might Be Giants. this song is apart of earnest cline's spotify playlist for ready player one. i hope i wrote this well enough so people who havent read the book or watched the movie can read without being confused. if not, pls let me know!! this is my first fanfic so let me know what yall think ok? (:

Johnny gasps as he pulls his visor off his head and enters reality. A layer of sweat formed on his forehead and his jeans were clinging to his thighs in an uncomfortable way. He checks the time on a digital clock across the room on his desk located by his bed. It was almost 1AM. This meant he needed to take a quick shower and head to bed because he had to wake up for class in six hours.

Johnny went to online schooling because even if he lived in one of the best places in Chicago, a weary suburb that still had houses, running water and sewage and the works, the public school he previously attended was underfunded. What was the point of going to a school in the real world and not have access to certain things when you can go into the OASIS and have access to every resource possible and it was all virtually free?

The next morning, Johnny wakes up and slips into a white tee and some old basketball shorts from eighth grade that still fit, and makes his way down stairs to where his mom whisked up some powdered eggs and stale toast. 

“Good morning mother,” he greets as his plates some rubbery eggs on top of some toast. He shakes some salt and pepper on as well, hoping that it will mask the powdery taste. It didn’t.

“Johnny, your dad and I are going to visit your grandmother in New York. The doctors are saying she might die in the hospital, so your dad wants to visit her one last time. We won’t be home when you come back from school. Will you be alright?” His mom looked at his thoughtfully, as if Johnny was somehow going to trash the house or have FBI agents take him away in the few days they will be gone. 

“Yeah, of course,” he says through a mouthful of eggs. “I’ll probably spend the night at Isaiah’s on Tuesday.”

His mother looks at his pointedly before saying, “alright. I’m calling his mother in advance.”

“Fine by me,” Johnny says while scrolling through his cell phone. Cell phones weren’t as popular as they used to be a decade ago due to the OASIS blowing up in popularity, but it still had its uses, and Johnny used it to keep up with his photography account. 

Ever since Wade Watts closed down the Oasis on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he’s made time to invest in photography and even has an internship as an advertiser for a huge corporation waiting for him after high school. Johnny feels grateful that he has opportunities for him when so many people are still struggling. However, the quality of life has significantly improved ever since Wade Watts found the Easter Egg. 

In other words, Johnny was lucky. He doesn’t take things in real life for granted, but he does have to admit that his life in the OASIS is in short, amazing.

At 6:55, Johnny goes back to his room and gears up with his school issued visor and haptic gloves. He has other gear that he’s bought for personal us, but for school, he doesn’t see any reason to wear the hot full body suit.

READY PLAYER ONE

He is standing by his locker, the place he logged out last time. With only one minute to spare, he makes it just in time to sit at his desk before the teacher takes attendance. Despite it being online, attendance was still mandatory for him. After putting his avatar in “Engaged” mode, Johnny makes some minor details in his avatar. For the most part, his avatar looked just like him: tall, simple haircut, somewhat muscular, big boned, and sunkissed. Johnny even included his sharp chin, v-shaped jaw and strong cheekbones and straight, sharp eyebrows. It was an animated version of himself, although no one in the OASIS would actually know that. 

The thing about OASIS is that he could be anyone he wanted and everything was practically anonymous, unless you wanted to be known as the same person in both worlds. 

Johnny opens up a browser that appears in front of his avatar. Only he could see what is happening on his screen, unless he chooses to allow others see from behind his shoulder.  
He logs into a networking site dedicated to finding Halliday’s Easter Egg. Ever since Wade Watts found it, the network doesn’t have as much traffic as they used to, but helpful tips used to navigate the OASIS could still be found there.

A message pops up from Jaehyun, a friend who lives in Connecticut. 

Jaehyun_: hey msg me back when class is over. Meet in the basement  
J0HNNYSUH: why whats up  
Jaehyun_: new challenge opened up in archaide.  
J0HNNYSUH: so? Theres always new gaming challenges there  
Jaehyun_: no this is full bodied… like one of us goes in and the other controlls. I will control you and you are the character. Know what i mean>  
J0HNNYSUH: no  
Jaehyun_: thats why we need to meet later. Challenge starts at 4  
J0HNNYSUH: alrite

He didn’t know what Jaehyun meant, but he was excited. A new challenge meant some potential money to spend of upgrading his current gear. 

Now that he thinks about it, Johnny doesn’t remember how he met Jaehyun. It was so long ago, and Jaehyun just remembers that he and Jaehyun were arguing over the last piece of bread at a virtual bakery. It was a concha, a Mexican bun, and it was important to enter through the last gate of some insignificant challenge that opened up that day. Jaehyun still has the same avatar, Taki from Your Name. At one time, Johnny questioned Jaehyun to see if he was a girl or not. Turns out, Jaehyun just liked the anime, and claims people say he looks like him. Johnny laughed out loud because people don’t just look like anime characters. 

After class, Johnny meets Jaehyun in the basement of Ludus, the planet created specifically for school. Each school was exactly identical, like someone just copied and pasted the same coding for each school building. The basement was were students could mingle with students of other schools.

“JOHNNYYYYY!”

“Dude, can you shut the fuck up?” Johnny was sitting at a table and there were people studying all around them. They grumbled, but most muted Jaehyun and went back to what they were doing. 

Jaehyun slides into the chair in front of him with his usual nerdy school uniform outfit on. “We have thirty minutes to do this. Okay? The game is Mario Kart, elementary, I know, but super easy.”

“What did you mean by you controlling me?” 

“Oh! Yeah, you know how to drive right?” Jaehyun looks so excited and Johnny didn’t have the heart to tell him he did not know how.

“Yes,” Johnny nods slowly. 

Jaehyun sits up and says “Great! Basically this is an actual Mario Kart race. You’re going to drive but I am the player and will help you navigate. It should be easy.”

“Fuck, that sounds so fun,” Johnny says quietly. Jaehyun’s excitement was contagious. “What’s the prize?”

“Oh shit, I forgot to tell you that first. Get this: 5,000 coins.” 

“No way. I thought they stopped giving out cash prizes?”

“They did, but since Wade Watts is competing in this too, it was his idea by the way, he decided that whoever wins will get some money too. So?” Jaehyun looked at him questioningly, his ties wrapped in between his slim fingers. Now that Johnny is looking, Jaehyun’s avatar is really skinny. 

“I’m down.”

Johnny blinked. He was back in the real world and he was hungry. His parents left him so money in case he wanted to order pizza or take out, but he really wanted some of the leftover pasta from last night. The noodles would get soggy if it was left any longer and that would be a big waste. 

After eating his almost soggy dinner, Johnny went back to his room to gear up. Only when he putting on his chest armor does he remember that he ripped it a few days earlier. 

Now he was at crossroads. He could still use it, but this is the first “real action” Mario Kart race to be held, and he wants to feel it. Thinking about the money that his parents left with him, he wonders if he should use it to buy another armor accessory, express shipping, or just let it be. 

What would Johnny be if he wasn’t a reckless teenager? He pressed ten minute delivery at checkout and hoped he wouldn’t be late for the race.

By the time his new suit came, it was almost 10 minutes until the race started. He geared up as fast as he could and slipped on his visor. 

When he logged back in, he was still in the Ludus basement, the last place he was at before he logged out.

Immediately, he uses a few tokens to teleport to the Planet of Archaide. 

As soon as he steps onto Archaide, he hears Jaehyun yelling his name. 

“What the actual fuck? I thought you flaked for a second there!”

Johnny rolls his eyes, “I’m here now.”

“Whatever just get in your car and drive up to the starting line. We are probably near the back because your dumbass always is late for everything,” Jaehyun huffs. 

He was mad. Johnny hated when Jaehyun was mad at him because he still went with him wherever if he wanted to but he would practically ignore him. Even when Johnny tries to make some stupid joke, Jaehyun would ignore him. Hopefully, this wouldn’t affect their performance.

He spoke too soon. They were so close but near the end, they argued over which path was the shortest or whether it was the same length. In the end, Johnny took whatever path he wanted because they were losing time and some dude named TYLee passed by them in a sleek motorcycle. TYLee ended up being first, and Johnny was second. 

“I can’t believe this. We were so close,” Jaehyun huffs into his ear.

“I’m sorry, but you’re the one who was leading. Wouldn’t you be able to tell which route is quicker?” Johnny slams his car door, unaware of the person walking toward him.

His car had a little dent from a where so car fell over and accidently pushed into his. 

“Maybe if you weren’t so late, we’d have time to go over a game plan. This whole thing could’ve been avoided.” In his head, Johnny could see Jaehyun furrowing his eyebrows, hunched over with his hand through his hair. Jaehyun must have had gear that allowed him to replicate his action on his avatar.

“I’m sorry. Things came up and I couldn’t be on time. Big deal, I have an actual life you know?” Johnny knew he might have pressed a button. People used the OASIS to escape their real lives, and he is basically rubbing it in Jaehyun’s face that he has real life stuff going on, even if in this case, all he was doing was ordering a new suit with his parents money. 

“Hey, don’t mean to bother you,” a new, deeper, quiet voice intrudes Johnny’s hearing just as Jaehyun was saying something that he didn’t pay attention to. 

“Uh, Jae, I’ll talk to you later.” He ends the call and turns around. 

It was TYLee.

TYLee was something close to a legend. Not Parzival and art3mis level, but he wasn’t unheard of. He was skilled and talented and did lots of things in the OASIS. He was known for creating the famous jingle of a new game that came out last year and for winning multiple challenges and quests. 

“You’re TYLee.” Quite frankly, Johnny was dumbstruck. 

“I know,” TY replies, giving him a soft smile that actually looked genuine. Genuinity is something hard to replicate in a world where a majority of people aren’t actually really who they are. They only show you what they want you to see.

“You did great today. Drive much?” TY tilted his head in a way that reminded him of a puppy. 

Johnny wasn’t going to lie: his heart was beating so fast. Maybe it was because he was in the presence of an accomplished person, and it was intimidating in a way. He didn’t know. Afterall, TYLee did look like a blonde Noctis from Final Fantasy.

Or maybe because he had a unrealistic crush of Noctis when he was sixteen and figuring out his sexuality. 

“Actually, this is my first time. You did amazing today, too. What are you planning to do with the 5,000?” Johnny was inwardly shocked at the fact that he was so composed. Even online, Johnny tended to act like a dork.

“I’m gonna share it with my team… and I was wondering if you wanted to meet them?” TYLee raises a questioning eyebrow.

Johnny could feel his eyebrows raising, and the tips of his bangs were brushing against his eyelids. “You’re kidding, right?!”

TYLee bites his lip unsurely. He folds his arms across his chest and replies, “I don’t think so?”

“Wow, this is so cool, wow,” Johnny rambles, “I can’t believe this. Can I bring my friend? He was my partner today?”

The frosted hair man almost looks uncomfortable with the request, but gives Johnny a yes anyway. 

“Meet me in Middletown in a few hours. Without your friend.” 

Johnny was so flustered, he didn’t even think before blurting out, “is this a date?”

TYLee’s expression morphs from cold and calculating to pure embarrassment. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was agape. He must have had a real time action suit because Johnny could see the tinge of red forming on the apples of his cheeks. “Excuse me?” He stutters. 

“Ha ha, don’t mind that. So what time?” Johnny was royally fucked, and just wanted to get away and find Jaehyun and tell him how he made a huge fool of himself in front of the TYLee. Jaehyun would probably laugh his ass off and forgive him about earlier.

“8PM,” TYLee replies. “It’s a date, so don’t be late.” Before Johnny could even say something, TYLee gave him that puppy head tilt and a subtle smirk, and then teleported out of Johnny’s sight. 

Holy shit, Johnny thinks. He’s hot.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me how it went. just spent 3 hrs writing this in one sitting with no editing so i might go back and edit later. im just rlly excited for this. its 1am and i have church tmr but here i am, writing a virtual gay love story.


End file.
